IROQUOIS AND JESUITS
THE DEPARTURE OF THE JESUITS
RENEWAL OF HOSTILITIES IN THE SPRING—PEACE—WAMPUM NECKLACES AND BELTS—MONTREAL HEADQUARTERS OF PEACE PARLEYS—AUTUMN ATTACKS—"LA BARRIQUE"—MONTREAL LEFT SEVERELY ALONE—CHIEF "LA GRANDE ARMES"—M. DE LAUSON PERSECUTING MONTREAL—THE COMPLETION OF THE PARISH CHURCH—PENDING ECCLESIASTICAL CHANGES IN MONTREAL—NOTES: BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE EARLY JESUIT MISSIONARIES IN MONTREAL—PONCET—JOGUES—LE MOYNE—BUTEAUX—DRUILLETTES—ALBANEL—LE JEUNE—PARKMAN'S ESTIMATE OF THE SUCCESS OF THE JESUIT MISSIONS—DR. GRANT'S APPRECIATION OF THEIR WORK.
The fictitious and temporary peace which had intervened when de Maisonneuve arrived in the autumn of 1653, and had allowed the settlers to resume the work of building their homes outside the fort, was shortly to be broken.
Indeed, during the year just described there were not wanting indications, early in the spring of 1654, of the renewal of hostilities, when a young surgeon engaged in setting his beaver traps was carried off in a canoe by the lurking Onondaga Indians. In the beginning of May a band of the same Iroquois, who had not heard of this act of perfidy, were well received when coming for trade and they sent a canoe back for the stolen man. In the meantime, about seven hundred Hurons descended to Montreal with thirteen Iroquois captives made on the journey down. These were given to the Iroquois captain, who remained as a hostage till the canoe returned, in the hope of making peace. Soon the surgeon was brought back with a delegation, bearing twenty necklaces of wampum as signs of peace from the Iroquois nation.
SANS MERCI
(By Hébert)
One of the significant gifts was to recognize and consolidate the position of Ville Marie as the headquarters of peace treaties, which had been lately so constituted by the governor of Quebec, who had transferred to Montreal the treaty pole which had been erected at Quebec in the autumn of 1653 as a sign of peace. Its position at Montreal signified the recognized place for parley councils for peace overtures. This was an adroit move on the part of de Lauson. It recognized that Montreal was the frontier post and the most accessible, and also it was a standing eulogium of the diplomatic ability of de Maisonneuve to deal with the natives, and it might keep the enemy higher up the river away from Quebec.